It is well known in the sporting world that athletes are often intensely interested in improving their performance in a given sport. This observation is true for all levels of athletes, but it may be especially true for novice athletes who are just learning a new sport or a new skill. Some athletes learn new skills by trial and error. Other athletes receive the benefit of a trainer or instructor. Regardless of which learning process is employed, most athletes tend to go through three stages of motor skill acquisition when they are learning or improving their skills: a cognitive stage, an associative stage, and an autonomous stage.
In the cognitive stage, an athlete begins to acquire information about how to perform a new skill. The focus of the cognitive stage is the development of a mental model of movement. The athlete receives and processes new information relating to a skill and then processes that information in an attempt to cognitively understand the essential requirements and parameters of motor coordination. The cognitive stage is characterized by large gains in performance, but the performance is typically inconsistent. To improve performance consistency at this stage, techniques such as slow-motion drills, video analysis, and augmented feedback can be highly effective. It is especially important that the athlete be provided with the necessary information, guidance, and time to establish sound fundamentals of movement through cognitive processes.
In the associative stage, the learning process becomes less cognitive and more physical, as an athlete attempts to apply what he/she has learned. Here, the athlete attempts to translate cognitive knowledge into procedural knowledge. In other words, the athlete tries to transform his/her understanding about what to do into the motor knowledge of how to do it. Accordingly, there is less emphasis on processing new information at the associative stage. Instead, the athlete uses conscious processing, combined with performance feedback, to obtain better motor control. The athlete may also work at making small adjustments to various movements and stringing together short sequences of smaller movements.
In the final autonomous stage of motor acquisition, typically after years of training, physical performance can become largely automatic. Cognitive processing demands are greatly reduced, and athletes can be capable of attending to and processing other information, such as the position of opponents, game strategy, and a particular form or style of movement. This is the stage where athletes can respond almost reflexively, where they can “grip it and rip it,” where they look and automatically react, and where they can enter a “zone” to achieve a state of flow.
Both good outcomes and bad outcomes are associated with the autonomous stage. Good outcomes are based on the fact that motor performance at this level requires much less cognitive demand, which thereby frees an athlete to engage in secondary tasks. On the other hand, when cognitive demand is lower, there can be more room for irrelevant and distracting thoughts. Another bad outcome during automatic motor performance is that an athlete may perpetuate incorrect movements. Just because a motor movement can be performed automatically does not mean the movement is correct or worthy of being maintained. Moreover, as soon as athletes stop thinking about a movement that was learned during the cognitive and associative stages, they may revert back to old and incorrect autonomous motor movements during competition or when they are under stress or are fatigued.
Indeed, there is always room for athletic improvement. This is true for all sports and all ages. Highly successful athletes and highly effective coaches are always looking for ways to get better. Consequently, they frequently revisit both the cognitive and associative stages of motor learning. Revisiting these stages can be essential for refining and perfecting athletic movements.
In the sport of tennis, for example, it is necessary to learn not only the rudimentary movements required to hit a ball, but also to quickly recognize, react, and respond to the movements of an opposing player. (The terms “athlete” and “player,” as used herein, are intended to have the same meaning.) Indeed, an ability to recognize and react to an opponent's shot can determine whether a player is able to get in position to hit a ball, able to hit a weak defensive shot, or able to hit a strong winning shot.
A quick reaction to the movements of an opposing player can depend on an ability to anticipate, and the ability to anticipate can depend on an ability to read cues from an opposing player. Recent research has shown that one of the differences between an expert and a novice tennis player is where a player is looking (i.e., directing his/her attention) when an opponent hits the ball. In addition to a player's focus of attention, proficiency in tennis also depends on a player's efficiency of movement. Players and coaches can use many drills to improve movement efficiency. Drills can also help to train player attention and focus through proper anticipation, observation, and identification of an opponent's movements.
Without the aid of a coach it is often difficult for a player to be consistently alerted about incorrect movements or improper preparation. A player typically cannot observe their own movements and must rely on outcomes to judge whether a particular movement requires adjustment. In contrast, a third party observer, such as a coach, can observe and analyze a player's movements as they occur independent of the outcome achieved and therefore are able to provide feedback to the player quickly after the incorrect movement occurs. However, even if coaches are utilized, they must rely on their individual comprehension of proper movements and preparation to judge their observations of a player to provide appropriate corrective feedback. Because both comprehension and observation can vary from person-to-person, corrective feedback received from coaches can be highly subjective and inconsistently provided to the player, therefore detracting from the efficiency of the player's motor skill acquisition.
Additionally, such corrective feedback is limited to verbal commands or engaging a player in visual response drills, neither of which require an athlete to react to an actual opponent. Training drills of this type are not efficient at providing immediate feedback to a player. As a result, the training benefit of such drills is not as high as it could be if appropriate feedback and cue instruction could be supplied in real time.
Various devices in the prior art help to provide athletes with feedback about their motor movements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,993 discloses a plurality of force sensors disposed at predetermined pressure points between a human hand and a golf club. A conversion device transforms inputs from the force sensors into audible sound frequencies that vary in proportion to the force applied and the location of the force. The conversion device also transforms the force sensor inputs into vibratory outputs or electrical currents that vary in proportion to the force level and location of the force. The outputs can be useful to determine whether a club is being held correctly or if too much force is being applied to one portion of the club handle.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,439,217 and 5,439,216 each disclose a device that informs a player when a proper grip is being applied to a racket handle or golf club. The device utilizes a membrane switch that is connected to a portable power source and coupled to an audible alarm, which is activated when the switch closes. The alarm indicates when an excessive handle grip force is being applied to the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,088 discloses a sports training aid having a pair of foot sensors that produce measurement signals corresponding to the weight applied to each foot sensor. The training aid compares the measurement signals with a specified range of values and produces audible sounds indicative of the relationship between the measurement signals and the specified range of values. The audible sounds provide the user with immediate feedback regarding shifts in weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,965 discloses a device for measuring the strike velocity of a tennis ball, where the device is installed on the tennis racket and measures the force exerted on the tennis racket strings during a ball strike. After a ball strike, the device displays a measured value associated with a calculated ball velocity.
There are additionally a variety of measuring devices for a striking element such as a racket or a golf club that are designed to measure the force with which a ball is struck or to measure the point of impact of a ball on the striking element. These devices are described in the following publications DE-A-34 36 218, U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,850, U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,868 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,324.
Some companies are developing devices that measure and record an athlete's movements during a tennis match. As an example, an Australian company called Smash Wearables Pty. Ltd. (see http://www.smashwearables.com) has developed a lightweight band that an athlete can wear on the wrist. The band, called “Smash,” uses onboard sensors to transmit movement information to an application running on a Smartphone. The sensors measure specific physical values associated with movement of the athlete's wrist. The Smartphone application records the sensed physical values and calculates information about the movement of an implied (not directly connected) tennis racket. The calculated information can include racket speed, racket angle, racket momentum, the angle of wrist rotation, and the racket stroke trajectory. Based on the calculated information about the movement of a player's wrist, the Smartphone application can also infer a number of other attributes associated with a player's performance in a tennis match, including the number and type of shots (e.g., forehand versus backhand and topspin versus backspin), statistics about the amount of spin delivered across shots, and the consistency of racket placement at the point of impact with a tennis ball. Using the Smartphone application, an athlete can set certain performance goals and track progress toward those goals.
Similarly, the well-known tennis racket company, Babolat, sells a racket called the “Babolat Play Pure Drive” (see http://en.babolatplay.com/) which includes sensors integrated into the handle of the racket. The sensors measure and record information regarding power, impact location, and type and number of strokes. The information is stored in memory and later retrieved, analyzed, and presented to the user with a Smartphone application connected via USB or Bluetooth.